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A Westfield-based manufacturer of metal components has acquired a similar firm in the southern Indiana community of Floyds Knobs in a deal that will more than double its employee count and annual sales.

Metal Powder Products LLC, a portfolio company of the New York-based private equity firm Mill Point Capital, closed on the purchase of NetShape Technologies Inc. on Friday. Officials declined to disclose the purchase price.

With the addition of NetShape’s 850 employees, Metal Powder Products will have 1,200 workers, according to a spokesman. And with the addition of NetShape’s 2017 gross sales of $122.3 million, Metal Powder Products’ sales for the year would have been $200 million.

Proceeding under the MPP name, the merged firm has nine production facilities in the U.S. and China. Six of them, including the operations in China, came from NetShape.

"MPP and NetShape are a perfect fit from a business perspective," said Dax Whitehouse, CEO of NetShape, in a prepared media release. “The two businesses strongly complement each other, and we look forward to building upon our respective strengths.”

Founded in 1948, MPP specializes in the production of custom-engineered gears and sprockets, complex structural parts, high strength aluminum parts and components requiring unique mechanical and physical properties.

Mason is on his second tour of duty with IBJ, having served as its real estate reporter from 1996 to 1999. Over 30 years working for newspapers and magazines across the country, he has covered most beats on the typical masthead, including business, sports, city government, arts, and consumer issues.

An alumnus of Broad Ripple High School, Mason continues a grand tradition of IBJ staffers educated in Indianapolis public schools. After graduating from Columbia University, he stumbled into print journalism, thanks to a Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship at The Indianapolis Star. Among his favorite gigs were arts editor for the Daily Journal-World in Lawrence, Kansas, and managing editor of Billiards Digest magazine, for which he spanned the globe covering poolroom hustlers and world champions. During his six-year tenure, BD was cited three times by the anthology "The Best American Sports Writing."

Thanks to its unusually trusting head honchos, Mason returned to IBJ in 2009 to captain its nascent multimedia efforts. Over three years, he created 600-plus video segments for IBJ.com, and his work was recognized by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) and the Alliance of Area Business Publications (AABP). In 2013, he added the mantle of news editor (which isn’t as lofty or authoritative as it sounds) and launched IBJ's morning e-newsletter, Eight@8, as its eponymous author and news curator. Eight@8 received the 2017 Gold Medal for Best Daily Email from AABP.

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